Template talk:Spammer

Just editing so it can be applied to all nuisance posters (vandals and the like). I can't make a template this funny for all problem users, so this shall be universal. --Charron 18:38, 20 Oct 2005 (PDT)

Okay, now I'm confused... is this template still obsolete, or should the {{rs}} template still be used? --Darthkillyou 16:26, 27 Apr 2008 (PDT)

It was an experiment that didn't work out. I'd suggest simply tagging the spammers with {{spammer}}. You can still tag them as "recent" instead but it doesn't have an advantage over the normal spammer tag. Retagging them as "banned" isn't necessary imo. The suggested actions are listed at Category:Spam. --Pizzahut 17:50, 30 Apr 2008 (PDT)

Contents

Right...

I'm starting to have enough of these bots.. Could we automatically ban anyone whose name follows the template "XxxxxXxxxx" (note the capitalization of the 6th letter)? Perhaps add a registration verification? It's really annoying that you come online to review the changes just to discover that in the last 15 minutes, another 9 pages have been flooded with porn links, and the best thing we can do about it is revert the page and mark the bot as a spammer... --Baliame 15:23, 12 Oct 2007 (PDT)

Not all spammers use that name pattern. Also, just a comment, most spammers I've seen flagged all their spams as "minor. --Darthkillyou 15:49, 14 Dec 2007 (PST)

There seems to be 2 botnets, one with the pattern and others with some random crap. --Baliame(talk) 16:10, 14 Dec 2007 (PST)

I'm getting quite a lot of user registrations related to Ahmadinajad on my site, but their spam is all (I mean ALL) being blocked by a combination of Bad Behaviour and Akismet. Perhaps those tools could be implemented here? --TomEdwards 07:31, 15 Dec 2007 (PST)

The best way to stop the spambots would be a CAPTCHA (image verification on registration) using Half-Life characters. --Sniperchance 18:06, 23 Jun 2008 (PDT)

I was thinking that a week ago. It would be perfect. then, to spam, you'd need to do it yourself, witch would make the volume a lot smaller. We should do that. Anyone have Garry's MOD? Let's pose some ragdolls!!!!!!!--JeffMOD 06:10, 24 Jun 2008 (PDT)

Okay, this recent rash of spammers is rediculous... something has to be done, and soon. If I look at the recent changes, I see at least 3 spam related changes, usually more... Really, this has to stop... —Unsigned comment added by JeffMOD (talk • contribs). Please use four tildes (~~~~) to sign your username.

Valve could try v3 of AuthImage. (1,2,3) Unlike the original version, v3 hasn't been "defeated" yet by PWNtcha and their website doesn't state that it has been defeated by other projects, so it probably isn't.

However, this will not help against human solvers. Especially the Rapidshare spam had clearly human assistence. A blacklist would suit in this case, but I'm not aware of one that works with the old wiki software that is used for the VDC. --pizzahut 06:38, 11 Dec 2008 (PST)

Pity

The redirect I used for the spammed pages would have kept them spam free because every line after a redirect is automatically deleted from edits, and the spam bots did simply add stuff without deleting the previous content, in this case the redirect. However either the bots are doing checks whether the edit was successful or they just went mad, anyway they started spamming a different URL instead with a more messed up path name than usual. --pizzahut 17:42, 24 Jun 2008 (PDT)

Another Idea

I think more full proof work around for the spam problem, on top of a CATCHPA, would be to tie the VDC registration process into SteamIDs. Instead of entering an email address (the current registration process doesn't even require this much), you would have to enter your SteamID to create an account, and a confirmation link email would be sent to whatever address is tied to that SteamID that would have to be clicked before the VDC account would be activated. To bypass scripts creating a bunch of fake Steam accounts, require that a game to have been activated/purchased through that SteamID and not allow more then one VDC account per SteamID. I don't think anyone who didn't own a Steam game (or have some sort of contract with Valve) would be trying to edit the WiKi anyways and this method would also be a deterrent to Vandalism as the VDC account would be tied to a SteamID. --brandished 08:35, 22 Jul 2008 (PDT)

Anyone up for hosting an anti-spam bot?

So it can run 24/7. Source code is on my user page. --pizzahut 15:41, 29 Jul 2008 (PDT)

Here is what you need, basically Perl, the MediaWiki module and the bot source. The user name and password in the bot.ini is for the Valve wiki.

Installing the MediaWiki module is probably the hardest part. Perhaps you can just type cpan MediaWiki::page, but probably you need to install it manually per instructions in the INSTALL file.

As for the Perl distribution, I didn't get along with ActivePerl, Cygwin worked after messing with the setup repeatedly, and Strawberry Perl I'd try next but haven't bothered since I got a working setup with Cygwin already. --pizzahut 19:02, 29 Jul 2008 (PDT)